1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adaptive front light system (AFLS) for a vehicle, and more particularly, to an AFLS having light-emitting diodes (LED) lamp units, which can generate various beam patterns according to various driving circumstances such as road conditions and weather conditions, by selectively turning on or off the LED lamp units according to the road or weather conditions to emit a hot beam, a middle beam, a spread beam and a high beam.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles are generally equipped with various headlights for improving driver's field of vision at night and for indicating the presence of vehicle on a road. Conventional headlights for vehicles include a halogen lamp or a high-intensity discharge (HID) lamp as a light source. The headlights also include a reflector which reflects light emitted from a light source forward. The reflector may include a coating layer which is deposited on the surface of the reflector and is formed of a highly-reflective material such as aluminum or silver powder.
In order to improve driver's field of vision in various driving conditions, an adaptive front light system (AFLS) has been introduced. AFLS is a system for varying the width and length of headlight beams according to driving conditions, road conditions, and other environmental conditions. For example, AFLS may provide additional illumination while cornering at low speed or prevent glare by adjusting the brightness of headlamps.
Conventionally, in order to fully the advantages provided by AFLS, projection-type headlamps have been designed to include a rotation axial member which is connected to a motor and a shield which is attached to the rotation axial member to project various beam patterns by being rotated along with the rotation axial member. Such projection-type headlamps, however, cause electromagnetic waves since the use a motor is required. Further, since additional control equipment is also required, it is difficult to fabricate the headlamps which results in increasing the manufacturing cost.
Conventional reflector-type headlamps generally have insufficient space therein to accommodate a number of reflectors that are needed to various beam patterns. In addition, the conventional reflector-type headlamps only provide some of the functions of AFLS merely by increasing the height of beams or tilting beams using a motor.